Summer SAVY, Session 4 Day 2, “Creature Connections: Animals, Humans, and the Natural World” (1st-2nd)
Dear SAVY Families,
Happy Tuesday and Day Two of SAVY Summer 2025 Session Four: Creature Connections! The zoologist in your family explored habitats, ecosystems, and the impact of small and large changes to habitats and ecosystems. I am looking forward to sharing our day with you!
To start our day, we watched a crash course video about food webs. This is connected to our learning about food chains from yesterday, but this time, the zoologists had to differentiate between a simple food chain and a complex food web. We took this learning and applied it to an online ecosystem simulation. Using PBS’s Plum Landing Ecosystem Simulations, the zoologists chose an ecosystem and followed the prompts to simulate their chosen ecosystem. Students then answered a variety of questions regarding what happens when both small and large changes are introduced to their ecosystem. As a class, we came together to debrief the activity and relate our learning to the generalizations of interactions. Finally, students cemented their understanding of the difference between a habitat and an ecosystem through playing a simple game of “I have / who has?”
After lunch, we shifted our focus to an ELA perspective. Students got to listen to two poems, In the Leafy Forest of Green by Alexandria Junker and A Series of Deaths by Michael Lindy. Both poems gave insights into interactions in the animal world. Through a class inquiry-based discussion, we made meaning of both poems and connected them to our generalizations of interactions. The SAVY zoologists chose which poem they preferred and completed a literary analysis wheel about their chosen poem. Then, we connected these poems to our morning activity by discussing the changes to the environments presented in the poems and how these changes impacted the environments.
To complete our day, we spent time studying a real-world problem in our country: the introduction of feral pigs. We started with another mini debate, and some students had background knowledge about this topic, but for others, it was completely new. Using beans, we created a simulation of what population expansion looks like. This allowed our young zoologists to better visualize the scope of the problem in America. Each group was assigned a time, and at either 20, 30, 40, or 50-second intervals, their population of beans doubled. The zoologists noted trends in the number of beans in their population and related this to representations of the real–life hogs. We watched a part of a documentary about the hog problem in America and viewed maps to have further information about the situation. To end the lesson, we returned to our original debate question: Should humans help control the growth or decline of animal populations? Students were encouraged to reconsider their original answer using the new information that was provided to them and provide their new evidence. I was impressed with the zoologists’ willingness to take a risk and change their opinions!
I am looking forward to continuing our learning this week at SAVY Summer 2025 Session Four: Creature Connections. Have a great night!
Sincerely,
Ms. Gruchot